China's Wuxi Biologics, a global top four contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO), will establish a microbial production plant in Chengdu, China. The goal is to complete it by the end of 2026.
Wuxi Biologics noted that it commenced construction of a 95,000 square meter biopharmaceutical CDMO facility on the 9th. It did not disclose the expense for the new construction.
The company plans to build this facility for the commercial manufacturing of various pharmaceuticals, including peptides, antibody fragments, enzymes, cytokines, plasmid DNA, and virus-like particles, as raw materials (DS) and finished pharmaceuticals (DP).
It is set to be the first in China to have a dual-chamber freeze-drying production line and a vial filling line, aiming to produce not only monoclonal antibodies but also recombinant proteins. Wuxi Biologics has already signed a contract for hormone production for the treatment of pediatric growth hormone deficiency. The company stated that the production capacity of the new plant will exceed 10 million vials annually.
Chris Chen, chief executive officer (CEO) of Wuxi Biologics, said, "With the potential of microbial-based products emerging, the Chengdu plant, with its overwhelming production capacity and cutting-edge technology, will accelerate growth."
Wuxi Biologics was hit hard by a decline in orders due to the U.S.-China conflict in 2023. Additionally, the so-called 'biosecurity law' was proposed in early last year, designating Wuxi Biologics and other Chinese biopharmaceutical corporations for regulation, raising anxiety.
However, with the bill not ultimately passing through the U.S. Congress, the threat of Chinese biopharmaceutical corporations being ousted from the U.S. market has been averted for now.
Wuxi Biologics recorded a sales revenue of 18.7 billion yuan (approximately 3.56 trillion won) last year, an increase of 9.6% from the previous year. This was due to the expanded production capacity of advanced technology products like antibody-drug conjugates (ADC) and bispecific antibodies, as well as increased production in Europe.
However, last year, Samsung Biologics surpassed Wuxi Biologics' sales, moving up to third place. The companies in first and second place are Lonza and Catalent, with Wuxi Biologics in third until 2023.
Wuxi Biologics is restructuring its global business sites. In January, it sold its vaccine plant in Ireland to Merck for 500 million euros (approximately 780 billion won). In May, it announced plans to sell its finished pharmaceutical production plant in Germany for 150 million euros (approximately 230 billion won). Wuxi Biologics is also building a large-scale biopharmaceutical manufacturing facility in Singapore.